The Girl next door
by MissyEvil
Summary: Teenage Emma Swan is not happy when she learns people are moving in. Not at all. She liked the house next door like it was - with no one living there. Until she meets Regina, her neighbor's daughter.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey guys! I'm finally writing again. I haven't seen a lot of once upon a time lately (besides what I see on tumblr) so it's been really hard to find inspiration (and time). However, I'm working on all my ongoing stories so you can really expect an update soon. YAY! right?! Also, here is a new story in the meantime. I'm willing to take this further (multi-chapter) because I like the idea myself.**

 **However, please review and let me know what you think! If you guys like it, I promise I'll update very soon! xx**

* * *

"Emma dear, will you come down please?" Her mother yells from downstairs. The blonde teenagers sighs in frustration before pushing herself of her bed, out of her room and down the stairs. "What is it mom?" She asks when she enters the kitchen where her mother and father are having lunch. She's not a big fan of lunch herself, she would rather spend time in her own room, reading books or chatting with her friends online.

Mary Margaret points out of the window, and Emma has to step a little closer to see. Her eyes land on a big, moving truck, standing on the lawn next to their house. "A truck?" She asks surprised. "Do you think people are moving in?" The house next doors had been empty for a little bit over a year now. It was definitely the biggest one in the neighborhood, and didn't really fit in there. Emma had hated the people who lived their. They were snobby people, always wanting to show off their big house and their big cars and their big, important jobs. She really, really hated them.

"Your father asked one of the men out there, they said that the Mills family would move in tomorrow."

"Ugh." The blonde said, clearly not happy with the news.

"Hey!" Mary Margaret said, nudging her daughter's shoulder. "You don't even know these people."

"No," The blonde responded, "but I know those kind of people."

Before Mary Margaret or David could say something else, Emma had already gone back up the stairs and into her room, fighting the tears that were trying to escape. She decided to stay there for the rest of the night.

And her plan was going fine, until a couple of minutes before six, when someone knocked on her door. "Yes.." She said, followed by an exasperated sigh. Slowly her father opened the door to her bedroom. He seemed careful, knowing his daughter didn't like them being up in her room. "Hey." He said softly, sitting down on the bed next to Emma.

"Hey dad." She responded.

"You should be hungry, you haven't eaten anything since this morning."

"Little bit." She admitted. Lying to her mother was always easier in some way, with her dad she always seemed to admit everything. Probably the reason why he was here.

"So.. tell me, what's wrong?"

Emma looked down at her hands. She really, _really_ didn't want to talk about this. "Nothing." She tried anyways.

"Emma." Her father said, leaning down to catch her eyes. "I know that you like to be up in your room, but it's not like you to skip dinner. Something is definitely wrong."

She couldn't help but laugh a little. That's true. She loved food, and especially the food that her mother cooks.

"It's about Neal." She answered finally, and her cheeks reddened immediately.

"We figured."

Neal had been the son of the couple that lived in the big mansion until a year ago. Neal and Emma had quickly became friends when they were still very young. They had been lived next doors to each other for five years. Their friendship had grown and the two were practically inseparable. Until they started their first year at college. Best friends that they were, they went to the same local university; however, not everything stayed the same. Neal had become friends with people that Emma couldn't stand, and instead of sticking with her, he had left her behind like trash. Emma never really had a lot of friends, Neal was one of the only ones she had. She tried to talk to him, but he turned her down every time. Until one day, she stormed into their big, white, ugly mansion to tell him all about how much he sucked. She had never expected to see him with another girl. They were kissing. Something inside Emma just broke at that moment. Somehow she had always seen herself end up with Neal, when the time was right. "I uh.." She had stuttered at the moment, completely forgotten everything she was going to say. "Who's _that_?" The girl said, pointing at Emma.

Neal looked at her, before looking back at the brunette girl in his arms. "Just some freak who lives next door."

Emma was nailed to the ground. How could he say that? How could he do that to her? They were best friends! They were going to live together forever. That's what they always talked about. Eventually, with tears streaming down her face, she made it out of the big, white, ugly mansion and back home, into the arms of her mother.

Even though it was a little more than a year later, Emma still thought about it a lot. Neal had destroyed most of her trust in man, even in people in general. It took a while to recover from it, and since then she has hated the mansion next doors. The thought of another family living there made all her feelings come back, and for a second she had become that 16 year old girl again.

"I know it's been a long time, it's just.." She sighed, fighting the stupid tears once more.

"It's okay sweetheart. What he did to you is really terrible, and you should cry." He smiled sweetly and pulled his daughter into his arms. Emma gave in, and breathed in the comforting scent that was so typically her father. "Thanks dad."

"But you should these people give a chance. Not everyone is like that Emma."

"I know.. it's just.. I don't know." Her father chuckled. "Just try. For your mother and me."

She rolled her eyes, but couldn't help but chuckle. "I will."

* * *

The next day Emma got up early to join her parents for breakfast. "Hey!" Her mother said, clearly surprised by her presence. "You're up early."

She shrugged. "Yeah. Figured I'd join you for breakfast. Besides, school starts again next week and I'm trying to get back in the rhythm again."

"Wow." Her father said. "Usually you don't get up before twelve and it's now… eight."

"Yeah, yeah it's a miracle. I know." She rolled her eyes at her parents and took a seat at the table. "So.." She started awkwardly, "anything happen next doors?"

"You didn't hear?" Her mother said, taking place next to Emma and placing a pancake on her plate (that was clearly meant for her father by the look on his face). "Another truck arrived at seven this morning, and it seems like they have already started unpacking and everything. It woke your father and I up."

"I'm a heavy sleeper I guess. Have you seen them yet?"

Her mother shook her head. "No. We figured we'd wait a couple of ours. We don't want to come off too strong."

Emma pointed towards the cake standing on the countertop, her eyebrows raised. "So that cake you made is not made for them?"

Her mother blushed. "Well, hey, at least we're waiting a few hours."

The blonde laughed, knowing her mother she would probably visit their new neighbors within the next thirty minutes.

And - proven right - her mother knocked on her door exactly 23 minutes later. "Come in." The blonde said. Emma was just chatting with her friend Ruby (who had just woken up at twelve, and was now yelled at by her grandmother who claimed her shift at the diner had started an hour earlier).

"Do you want to come meet them?"

Emma looked up from her phone. "You guys are going over there right now?"

Mary Margaret held up the cake as an answer before smiling sweetly at her daughter. "You should come honey, you'll see, they're probably really nice people."

"You don't know that." She said in a childish voice.

"That's true, but I still think that you should come with us."

Emma shrugged. "I'll see."

Her mother sighed but seemed to let it go. "Okay then."

Emma listened to her mother's footsteps down the stairs, and waited before she heard the front door fell shut before she jumped up. She quickly texted Ruby that she had to go before running down the stairs. Yes, she didn't want to meet these people,but that didn't mean that she couldn't spy on them. Emma walked up the kitchen window. Now that the moving truck was gone she had a clear view of the house. She could see her parents ringing the doorbell and by the reactions on their face it was pulled open only a few seconds later. She couldn't see the person through this window. There was only one option: she had to get closer. She opened the front door and walked towards the mansion.

She didn't know how exactly she was going to pull this of, however her years of remaining in the background seemed to suddenly pull of. She got closer to the house and no-one seemed to notice her. Men walked around her, carrying all kinds of boxes and furniture. Expensive couches, expensive closets, expensive clothing, it just kept coming. These people seemed to be even richer than Neal's family had been. She figured she could just blend in with these people and followed them along the side of the house.

Suddenly a man walked up to her. "Ah, you must be Regina. Here." He placed a box - which was surprisingly heavy - in her arms and smiled at her. "We figured that you would want to place and unpack them yourself."

"Uh thanks." Emma responded, because 'I'm sorry. I'm not Regina, I live next door and I'm just sneaking around' seemed worse for some reason. The man kept staring at her and she realized that she should do something. "Yeah uh I'm just gonna do that now." She awkwardly walked away with the box in her hands, hoping that no-one who actually lived her would notice her.

She was so busy watching what was happening around her and trying not to get caught, that she didn't notice the girl standing right in front of her. She bumped into her and almost fell backwards because of the weight of the box. "Ouch." Emma said.

"Excuse me?" A voice said. Emma looked up and her eyes finally connected with the ones of the person standing in front of her. Wow.

"Hello?" The girl tried again, and finally Emma seemed to snap out of it. "Uh I'm sorry."

"You should. Watch where you're going please." The brunette girl said. Emma eyed her and estimated that she was around the same age as she was. She was wearing a white shirt on black pants and her hair was in a braid. She must have been the girl that the man had been talking about. Regina.

"I'm sorry." Was the only thing she managed to get out. Only now did the girl seem to notice the box she was holding.

"Why do you have one of my boxes?"

"Someone gave it to me, they thought I was you. I'm sorry I know I shouldn't have taken it. It's just, I live next doors and I thought that I would come say hi." She ended it with a sweet smile, trying to seem innocent.

"You shouldn't have done that. It's very rude of you."

"It's rude to say hi to my new neighbors?" She tried. God this girl was uptight.

"It's rule to steal their stuff." The brunette said, her arms crossed.

"I wasn't- you know what? Let's start over. I'm Emma, Emma Swan. My parents are inside now, meeting your parents. I shouldn't have just walked around like that and I apologize."

The girl seemed to think it over for a second, before finally sticking out her hand for Emma to shook. "I'm Regina Mills."

Just as Emma was going to say something else, she was interrupted. "Emma?" It was her mother's voice, who looked anything but happy. "What are you doing here? Never mind, we're going."

The blonde raised an eyebrow. "Mom what's-"

"Emma." She had never heard her father talk to her in that voice. She muttered a quick 'sorry' to Regina before following her parents inside their own house.

"What's wrong with you guys?"' She asked.

Her mother just stormed of, not even bothering to say anything. The last time Emma had seen her like that was when someone had poisoned their cat on purpose. And she hadn't spoken to him for over a year.

"I don't think we're going to be friends with those people." Her father said.

"What do you mean? I mean yeah I met their daughter and she was a bit weird, but she didn't seem that bad."

"Let's just say that your mother has a history with them, that she has tried to forget for a very long time."

Emma narrowed her eyes. "What are you talking about?"

"I think your mother will have to tell that story for herself Emma. I think it's just best that we stay away from them for a while now."

The blonde was anything with satisfied with the answer, but knowing her mother she would most likely let it go soon enough. Which was good, because Emma really wanted to talk to Regina again.

* * *

 **Please let me know what you think and if you want me to continue! :)**


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you all for the reviews and follows/favorites! It means so much to me! :) Anyways, here's a second chapter. Let me know what you think or if you have any requests/ideas for this story! It's always welcome!**

 **Please review if you like where this is heading and want to see more!**

 **xxxx**

* * *

A week later school started. Emma had stayed in her room for most of the week, catching up on some things she needed to prepare for class and comparing her schedule with her friends. Luckily Emma, Ruby and Belle seemed to have most classes together, except for Business. Which sucked, because Emma had always preformed badly at the course.

She had tried to talk to her mother about what happened at the Mills' house, but her mother had refused to tell her. David seemed to know as well, but whenever she asked he'd respond with 'your mother will tell you when she's ready', which Emma read as him being too uncomfortable to talk about it.

She hadn't tried to talk to Regina anymore, figuring she would just let it go. That girl seemed like the type of person she could never be friends with anyways, and she didn't really want to risk it anyways. Besides, her mother would probably not like it all.

* * *

Monday morning Emma was up at 8:30am, giving her exactly fifteen minutes before she had to leave for school. She never really needed a lot of time, and preferred to sleep instead of spend an hour on doing her hair. She had always found it useless. She was downstairs at 8:40, where her mother had packed her lunch like usual. "Thanks mom." She said, smiling sweetly at her mother. "You're welcome. I figured you'd come downstairs only five minutes before you have to leave. And you know how I feel about you not eating before going."

"Yeah yeah I know. Thanks though." She said, holding up the wrapped food. "Say good morning to dad from me?"

"I will sweetheart. Now go, or you'll be late on your first day back."

Emma smiled and waved goodbye to her mother.

 **Are u here?**

 _No. I'm not gonna go today._

 **You're kidding me. Right?!**

Emma smiled at her friend's text. She loved to tease Ruby a little bit, since the brunette was so easy to fool and her reactions were just hilarious. She honestly had missed this over the summer.

Her phone chimed with another message, making her smile even harder.

 **EMMA SWAN GET YOUR ASS DOWN HERE. YOU SRSLY CAN'T LEAVE ME ON THE FIRST DAY. ESPECIALLY NOT IF WE HAVE GOVERNMENT.**

 _You have Belle!_

 **Yeah but she's like.. good at it. She likes it, him. It's weird. You know I need u!**

Emma laughed will knocking on the door of the diner. Only a few minutes later Ruby opened the door. "Oh thank god. I really thought you were going to ditch me on the first day."

The blonde pretended to be offended. "I would never."

"You better hope so, Swan. I will hunt you down and drag you to school."

Emma laughed. "I've missed you."

Ruby smiled and nudged her shoulder playfully. "I missed you too. How was your summer?"

The brunette waved goodbye to her grandmother as they left the diner and started to short walk to school.

"You know how my summer was." Emma said.

"Yeah I do, in excruciating detail."

"Then why do you ask?" Emma said, still smiling.

Ruby shrugged. "You know me, I'm just being nice."

Emma actually laughed out loud. "Come on, we should hurry up. We'll be late."

With still two minutes to go, Emma and Ruby entered the classroom, taking their usual seats in the back. "Hey Belle!" Emma said, giving her friend a hug. She and Ruby had only known Belle for a couple of months. She jumped in at the last semester of the school year. However, Ruby and Belle had clicked right away and after knowing the smart girl for a little while Emma had decided that she liked her as well. Belle was friendly and cheerful, and extremely smart.

"Hello Emma! How was your summer." She asked, staring impatiently to the front of the class.

"Mmm.. nothing important. How was yours?"

She smiled. "Great! I visited some family, but mostly just relaxed and read some books."

"Some?" Both Ruby and Emma said at the same time.

The brunette sighed. "Okay. I read like a 100."

All three girls laughed.

"Glad to see you three again." The ice cold voice of their teacher said.

"Mister Gold." Ruby responded. "How was your summer?" A couple of students laughed, and Emma poked her elbow into her friend's side, warning her. They had been kicked out a couple of times before, but getting kicked out at the first day would definitely be a new record.

Surprisingly, he smiled. "Good. Thank you for asking Miss Lucas. Now if you would be so kind to keep it down, so that we can start class."

The brunette nodded and let the teacher continue with his little welcoming speech. "Wow." She whispered.

"I know." Emma responded. "That's just creepy. I was sure he was going to kick you out."

"Why do you guys always think that? He's really not that bad." Belle spoke up. However, the looks of her friends shut her up fairly quickly and she returned her attention to the front of the class.

The three friends made it through the next couple of classes without too much trouble. It was mainly a lot of introduction to new classes and catching up with a lot of people. Emma wasn't really into the catching up part, she tried to avoid it actually. However, Ruby liked the attention and usually dragged Emma along, saying that it was good for the blonde to meet some new people. Emma always rolled her eyes, but still went along.

* * *

At the end of the day there was only one class left, and it was the one that Emma dreaded the most: Business. She was really not looking forward to this. It was already 3 and she wanted to go home and binge watch some tv shows with a pizza next to her in bed.

"Why do you hate it so much? You're not so bad at it Emma." Belle said, smiling at her friend.

"Only because I was sitting next to you. Now I'm going to be all alone and if the teacher starts throwing some random question at me I won't be able to answer it."

Not knowing how to respond to that, Belle tried to reassure her friend with a smile and a light squeeze in her arm. "You'll be fine, Emma." Ruby added. She waved goodbye to her friends and made her way to the classroom. She shouldn't have stayed to talk to her friends, she was already late right now. The last thing she wanted to do in this class was draw attention to herself. She knocked on the door and softy pulled the door open.

"Hi." Emma said awkwardly.

"Good afternoon Emma." Mister Hopper said, Emma flinched at the usage of her first name. It would mean everyone knew already that she was a complete failure. "Not so smart huh? Being late at the first day."

"I'm sorry sir, it won't happen again."

He smiled friendly. "It's alright. You can take a seat next to Miss Mills." He pointed to an empty seat at the back of the class. Emma's jaw almost dropped to the floor. _No._

"Is there something wrong?" He asked, and the blonde realized she was still standing in the front of the class.

"Uh no." She felt her cheeks redden, and quickly made her way over to the back of the class. She took the seat next to Regina.

She waited until Archie had continued with the lesson before she dared to speak again. "Hey Regina."

The brunette didn't respond. Emma figured that she didn't hear her. "Regina." She said a little louder, leaning in closer to the girl sitting next to her.

"I heard you." She answered.

"Geez. I'm sorry." Emma said, surprised by the cold reaction of her. Sure, they weren't friends, they didn't even know each other, but what's wrong with just being polite.

She unpacked her stuff and decided to leave it alone. If Regina wanted to do this, then fine. She didn't need another friend. She had two great friends and that was perfectly fine. She never even wanted to be friends with her anyways. She dared to look at her though. Regina was dressed in an outfit similar to the one that she had worn when Emma had met her. Her hair was tied up in a braid once again.

"Stop staring at me."

Emma was surprised by the sudden words of the brunette and was taken aback for a second. "I wasn't." She responded, sounding like a five year old child.

"Yes you were. You still are actually."

Emma immediately cast her eyes to the front of the class. Damn she really should be paying attention to this class. It was the first day and already she understood nothing of the words on the black board. She looked around the classroom, trying to see if she recognized some people from last year. Luckily for her, most people she hadn't seen before. Except for Killian. Killian had been in her Business class last year as well. He was always teasing her. She couldn't stand the guy.

"Emma?" her teacher called out for her, snapping Emma from her thoughts.

"Yes." She responded, her stomach turning.

"I asked you a question. Were you not paying attention? If I were you I would pay better attention, if you're planning on passing this course."

Right now the blonde wished she could just disappear into the ground. Why, why would he do this to her? She had no idea what to say, and she could sense that everyone was looking at her. She should have tried to switch classes so that she could be with Belle. Why did she even think that she could do this alone?

"I asked you what the term marketing myopia means." He pointed towards the black board, where a variety of words she didn't know were written down.

Shit. Shit. Shit. What should she do? She had no idea what marketing myo -whatever meant. This was going to be extremely embarrassing. Already on the first idiot, everyone in this class would know that she was the biggest idiot here. Just as she was about to tell the teacher that she had no idea, Regina slipped her a message.

She looked down at the note lying down on her table. What? Her eyes looked up at the brunette, but she was already looking at the front of the class again. She hoped that she wasn't messing with her, because that could make this even worse. However, not saying anything was only making it worse. She took one last look at the note before speaking up.

"Marketing myopia means that business will do better if they focus on customer's need rather than on selling products." She put on her best fake confidence voice and stared at her teacher. The man coughed.

"Uh yes, I suppose that's right. Very good."

Emma smiled to herself, releasing a breath she had been holding. Thank god.

Mister Hopper returned his attention back to the rest of the class and the board. "Thank you." She whispered to Regina.

"You're welcome."

It was the nicest thing Emma had heard the girl say since she had met her. "I didn't know you were going to this school as well." The blonde said.

Regina sighed, clearly annoyed by the disturbance. "My parents enlisted me a couple of months ago. In a town like this, it's not like you can choose between schools. The next one is an hour away."

"I suppose that's true. It's a good school though."

The brunette shrugged. "If you say so."

Emma rolled her eyes, why did she even try? This girl clearly didn't want to talk to her. She decided to shut her mouth and actually pay attention for the rest of the class. They were for sure going to get homework and she didn't want to bother Belle or her parents for the rest of the night, trying to figure out how to make the assignments.

The rest of the class was fairly boring, just a lot of words that she didn't understand and would still have to ask Belle to explain later. Luckily, mister Hopper didn't give them a lot of homework so maybe she could still figure it out on her own. She packed her backpack and made her way out of the classroom, more than ready to go home already. It had been a long and boring day.

"Wait." Someone suddenly spoke up. Emma turned around to face Regina standing there awkwardly. She raised her eyebrows and walked back towards the girl. She gestured for the brunette to follow her, away from the crowd of students that was trying to exit the classroom.

Once they were standing in a more quiet hallway Emma gestured that Regina could speak. "I'm sorry."

Emma frowned. "What for?"

The girl sighed. "For just .. you know.. being rude to you."

"You weren't. I mean, not really."

She was though. Rude, but Emma didn't want to make her feel bad about it.

"Yes I was. It's just that, my parents told me to avoid you."

Emma was surprised, so there really was something happening? She should really talk to her mother about this. Whatever it was, it seemed to be pretty bad. "Do you know why?"

Regina shook her head. "No. But I think it's best that we stay away from each other."

The blonde raised her eyebrows. "You're kidding right? I mean I'm not saying I want to be friends with you or something, but you don't have to listen to you're parents like that."

Regina looked surprised, like she had never heard something like that. "Yes I do. And so do you."

"My parents didn't tell me to stay away from you." The girl responded. "Anyways, I won't bother you again, but we still have to sit next to each other this class, and I think you've seen how terrible I am at it."

"Quite-"

"Anyways," Emma interrupted, "You can't totally avoid me. Besides, we live next doors."

"I can try." The brunette, completely serious.

Emma laughed. She liked this, she decided. She didn't know why, but there was something about Regina, and the way that she viewed everything so different that spoke to Emma. She was going to make this hard on her.

"Okay then. So, let's go home?" The girl smiled, walking ahead.

The whole way home, Emma was walking with a smile. She could hear Regina walking just behind her, and it amused her enormously. This was definitely going to be fun.

* * *

 **Thank you for reading!**


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